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Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index time series for Integrated Hydrological Units Hydrometric Areas (1961-2012)

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Time series of the Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), a drought index based on the probability of the climatic water balance (precipitation minus evapotranspiration) over a given accumulation period, calculated for Integrated Hydrological Units Hydrometric Areas across the UK. SPEI values are provided for accumulation periods of 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, each computed per calendar month, with the gamma distribution fitted to the 1961-2010 reference period. The dataset spans 1961 to 2012 and is published by the Environmental Information Data Centre, building on hydrometric area definitions by Kral et al. and the SPEI methodology of Vicente-Serrano et al. (2010).​Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) data for Integrated Hydrological Units (IHU) Hydrometric Areas (Kral et al. [1]). SPEI is a drought index based on the probability of occurrence of the Climatic Water Balance (CWB) - which is equivalent to the amount of precipitation minus the amount of evapotranspiration - for a given accumulation period as defined by Vicente-Serrano et al. [2]. SPEI is calculated for different accumulation periods: 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 months. Each of these is in turn calculated for each of the twelve calendar months. Note that values in monthly (and for longer accumulation periods also annual) time series of the data therefore are likely to be autocorrelated. The standard period which was used to fit the gamma distribution is 1961-2010. The dataset covers the period from 1961 to 2012. [1] Kral, F., Fry, M., Dixon, H. (2015). Integrated Hydrological Units of the United Kingdom: Hydrometric Areas without Coastline. NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/3a4e94fc-4c68-47eb-a217-adee2a6b02b3 [2] Vicente-Serrano, S. M., Beguería, S., & López-Moreno, J. I. (2010) A Multiscalar Drought Index Sensitive to Global Warming: The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index. J. Climate, 23, 1696-1718. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2909.1 Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/19c230b2-415b-456a-9e93-7b00b730a465.